"What do they mean 'infected'?" Palmer asked as Jeff wrapped a bandage around his arm.

They were still in the control room of the gun facility.

"I'm not sure... Do they consider humans a disease? Or possibly the natural bacteria in our body could be considered harmful to them?" Jeff continued pondering.

"Could be... but I'm more worried about the last possibility... What if there's some unknown alien disease on this planet we've contracted?"

"Let me get this bandage done and then I'll scan us both and see what Sally can compile for us."

Jeff cut the last wrap of bandage with his knife and tied it off on Palmer's arm. Then, he stood up and took out his scanner. He pointed it at Palmer and began a medical diagnostic. When it was done, Sally processed for a moment and then relayed her data. A picture of the human body appeared on the PDA screen and indicated various life sign information.

They both stood there in silence as they tried to think of their next course of action until Sally interrupted their thoughts.

"I am detecting additional data streams from the main terminal. Other than the repeat of the quarantine message, it also contains the mention of another alien facility elsewhere on the planet. Evidence suggests it is located 800m below sea level, approximately 1km south-west of this installation. Information recorded to data bank. Marking on hud."

"Great, more aliens." Palmer said.

Jeff evaluated the data on his PDA, "Well we're on a timer now. We have no idea if this disease will be harmful or not, but we can't take the chance that it won't be. We also don't know how long it will be before it will kill us if it IS harmful. I think getting off this planet just became the secondary mission. We've got to find a way to cure ourselves or at least prove that it won't be harmful to humans first. We cannot afford to go back to civilization only to find out we transferred a deadly, incurable disease to the entire populace."

Palmer sighed, "Agreed, but where do we start? We have absolutely 0 info on this stuff."

"Well," Jeff said as he began pacing and putting the pieces together, "If the purpose of this gun was quarantine enforcement, then the aliens obviously knew about the bacteria and its lethality. The other alien facility that Sally discovered might have more answers. If they found a cure, they'll have data on it somewhere and the best place to start would be there since Sally apparently can't derive any more data from this facility."

@Kubazet99 Populace means the people living in a particular country or area. It's a word similar to Population, Inhabitants, or Residence. In the case I used it in, Populace means all the people of the human race. The word, according to Google translate, should be the equivalent to 'Lid' in Czech. I hope this was helpful!

Jeff and Palmer stared at the holographic of the cyclops model on Jeff's PDA as Sally highlighted the various systems that had been reverse engineered from the fragments they had found. Palmer stood up off of the small bench in the room outside of their bedrooms.

"Well what are we waiting for? Let's get to work!"

They both exited through the moonpool and headed for the surface. Jeff unstrapped the mobile vehicle bay platform from his back and pulled it above the water. A small intake vent began sucking air into the 4 deflated buoyancy packs until they were fully inflated and could hold a person's weight.

"We should look into making a base-mounted vehicle bay in the future," Jeff said as he hoisted himself out of the water onto the platform. "It's kinda lame to have to deploy this thing every time and then repack it so it doesn't float off."

"Sounds good. I'm sure we'll be thinking of plenty more ease-of-access and comfort additions to our base as time goes on."

Jeff took out his PDA's data chip and plugged it into the platform's terminal. Instantly the available vehicle schematics appeared on the screen and Jeff selected the cyclops option.

"One stock cyclops coming right up."

The four fabrication drones that previously sat dormant in their slots above the orange buoyancy packs sprung to life and flew up into the air out in front of the platform. First, they began fabricating the frame of the cyclops. They formed a dorsal and ventral titanium beam that sloped to connect in the back and, in the front, abruptly jutted down and connected where they formed a large forward circle that would frame the pilot's bubble. Then, the drones went back over the beams and formed support ribs that followed the contour of the future outer hull. Once all of the beams, rib work, and deck floor beams were reinforced and ready to go, various frameworks of computer terminals and electrical boxes were formed to house the electronics. Once these smaller frames were made, the drones began fabricating wires running along the framework of the ship that connected to various locations throughout the ship. The drones then moved to the tail of the ship where they fabricated the propeller system and connected it via drive shaft to the back of the engine that they slowly and meticulously built piece by piece. Next, the computer systems began to be installed in their various places followed by the decoy launching tube and the terminals. Quickly the drones worked until all electronics, systems, and hardware were installed. As the finishing touch, the drones began covering the whole structure with the hull plating. Slowly the ship took a sleek look as the hull curved and contoured around the framework. Slowly, but surely, the hull was completed and the drones' task was done. They returned to their slots in the vehicle platform and then the gravity field released the completed cyclops. A tidal wave of water accompanied by a massive "kerplunk" burst from around the cyclops as its slim underbelly cut through the water and submerged. Palmer instantly ducked under the surface and Jeff did a back-flip off of the platform.

"Ha ha! She's beautiful!" Palmer exclaimed.

The bubbles created from his entry into the water dissipated around Jeff and he could see the cyclops clearly with the sun gleaming off its shiny exterior.

"It's a lot bigger than I thought it'd be... sleeker too!"

They both swam closer to the cyclops and found the entry hatch on the underside. Palmer pulled the lever and opened the hatch and pulled himself up into the cyclops with Jeff close behind. Suddenly, an echoing, automated male voice boomed through the ship.

"Welcome aboard, captain. All systems online."

They stood in a very small room just slightly bigger than the hatch on the floor but tall enough to stand up straight in. In front of them was a bulkhead door that was closed tight. Palmer took hold of the special handle, pulled it out, turned it 90 degrees, and pulled open the door. They both stepped through into the storage bay hall. On the right, storage lockers lined the walls and, to their left, a ladder lead up to the main deck. They both passed by the ladder and headed to another bulkhead at the end off the hall of lockers. Through this door, they found the submersible bay. It was a room with two large bay doors that made up the floor and walls. On the roof, four large magnetic docking clamps were positioned. These could extend to receive a docking submersible.

"This'll make keeping our seamoths up and running much easier," Palmer noted.

They continued through the next bulkhead. This room was a mess of cables, pipes, and wires exposed on the walls and ceiling for easy maintenance access. This room was located in the tail of the ship and thus the floor sloped upward to a set of ladders. They climbed up onto the main deck and entered into the engine room. The drive shaft sat still as the engine remained dormant. They walked to the left of the engine and evaluated its components and controls. A small terminal mounted on the engine gave technical stats and was adjacent to three power-cell input tubes that were already loaded.

"This thing has some power to it," Jeff remarked as they continued on out of the engine room.

In this room, they saw the upper section of the docking bay. A glass floor with a hatch mounted in the center of it allowed them to peer down below at where they had previously been. The next room was completely empty and would be a good place to add on-board fabrication systems and other such electronics. Finally, they entered into the bridge through a large circular bulkhead. Ahead of them was the large pilot's bubble that bulged out from the hull and housed the steering yoke that jutted out of the floor. To their left, a holo display of the cyclops hull floated above a computer terminal. The display gave over-all status updates on hull integrity, emergency systems, engine temperature, and battery power output. Across from the holo display, on the right side of the room, was another computer terminal with more ship data and subsystem controls. The top of the ladder they had previously passed was also visible to their right next to the terminal.

"Wow, so spacious. That Viper simulator had a cramped cockpit that sat three people in a forward line with dense control panels all around."

"Well there aren't as many systems to worry about underwater as there are in space. Especially when flying a combat vessel compared to this stock exploratory submarine."

Palmer walked up to the control yoke. As he approached, an overhead holo display shot out beams of light to the top left of the glass that resembled the blue icon of a propeller. He reached out and touched it and the icon switched to a yellow blinking icon of a running engine.

"Engine powering up." The on-board AI said.

Suddenly, more icons appeared on the glass. On the left, three arrow icons that indicated speed were displayed, and on the right, some more obscure icons were displayed.

While Palmer was fiddling with the ship's controls, Jeff walked over to the right computer terminal and hooked up his PDA to it.

Jeff entered the name into the text box. Then, the two of them went back and forth about the color scheme of the ship until they settled on a base color of light blue with a main stripe of black and a secondary stripe of yellow. Jeff was admiring the simulated view of the cyclops with its new color scheme when Sally suddenly echoed through the ship.

"Ahead Flank."

Jeff looked over to the pilot's bubble and Palmer smiled.

"Let's go a-splorin!"

"Hang on there Indiana Jones, let's get you practiced up on how to operate this thing, install a few essential systems, and get together some provisions before we get carried away!"

"Aw, but I wan't to head full speed into the mouth of a giant creature!" Palmer joked.

Jeff rose up on the freight elevator with a few boxes at his feet. Determination was docked above his head to a special docking collar they had made specifically to connect the ship directly to their base via the large bay doors of the cyclops. Slowly the platform became level with the bottom deck of the ship and Jeff disembarked carrying a box with him into the cyclops. Meanwhile, Palmer was packing some fruits and other food produced from the plants he had transplanted to their base from the floating island a few days prior. The plants' fruits we're much more easily preserved than the meat of the fish on this planet. They were getting supplies together to make a trip to the next possible alien facility, but they had decided to make a pit stop before that.

"Now that the fires on the Aurora have died down and the radiation level has reached nominal, we need to pay one final visit for any valuables I may have left behind on my first visit," Jeff had said.

And so that's where they were headed; one final time into the smoking tomb that claimed the lives of nearly 7,000 souls, save 2.

Palmer was muttering to himself as he walked by the crates and lockers in the cargo hold with his PDA displaying a checklist document he had put together. Jeff came down the ladder and opened a locker to put away some materials.

"Talon's docked and ready to go and I loaded up six new power cells into the engine. I did a systems check too and everything's green across the board. Ready when you are."

Palmer brought the PDA down to his side, "Welp I think we've got all the supplies we need with enough room to spare for things we might find on the Aurora. Let's go."

Jeff and Palmer climbed the ladder onto the bridge. Palmer walked over to the control yoke and Jeff stepped up to a computer terminal.

"Engine powering up," Sally reverberated a Palmer interacted with the holo display in front of him.

Jeff continued looking at the computer screen that was giving the stats of the whole ship, "Everything's good. Start out slow. It's really shallow most of the way between here and the Aurora."

"Gotchya."

"Ahead slow," Sally said.

And they were off. Palmer began heading along the outskirts of the shallows toward the Aurora. The going was slow and tedious maneuvering in the shallows, but Palmer caught on quick to how the Determination responded to his input.
As they came up alongside the Aurora, heading down toward its busted nose, Jeff reinstated his warnings he had told Palmer in the past.

"Remember, this is the area I encountered the reaper and you can always hear them hanging out in this area. Keep to the surface. Let's both keep an eye on the radar and I'll man the cameras. As soon as either of us spots a Reaper, immediately switch to silent running. If possible, we can slowly make our way forward, but as soon as we get any indication that it's coming for us, go dead in the water, turn off the engine, and turn off all the lights. The less conspicuous we can be, the better. I doubt this stock cyclops could take that much more than a seamoth if it gets on the wrong end of a Reaper's curiosity."

"Roger that captain."

Palmer maneuvered through some sand dunes and continued following parallel to the hull of the Aurora. The blackened frame of the vessel was an emotional and eerie sight. Once a magnificent, majestic ship that was the pride of the newest line of Alterra ships, was now reduced to a picture of dread and despair and just as lifeless as the bodies of those that went down with her. Jeff shook himself away from the dorsal cam's visual. He couldn't remind himself of what he'd seen on his first trek inside. He did, however, think of his own family and how they were just as unknowing of the fate of the Aurora as the rest of Earth. In Earth years, it would be close to the fourth of july, a holiday still celebrated by those who respect and cherish freedom around the world. Though his family of American decent still called it the Fourth of July, the world had renamed it Freedom day so it could apply to everyone. Jeff imagined his family breaking out the fireworks holo display and setting it up outside to watch simulated fireworks beam into the sky. He imagined the smiles on their faces that weren't tainted by the knowledge of the Aurora's fate. His older brother, being the dramatic sort would likely give some elegant speech about the true origin of Fourth of July and what it meant today. Jeff tried to push these thoughts away but it was too late. Tears started to trickle down his face.

"Will I ever see them again?" he thought.

The tears increased until he had to put his hands on his face to stifle himself.

But he couldn't stop the tears. Jeff struggled to regain his composure, but while his eyes were still blurred and his hands still wiped at his cheeks, he didn't see the ventral cam's visual, and on the screen was a long white slender form just coming out of the dark blue murk below. It was a reaper, and it was looking right at them.

Jeff's heart skipped a beat and he lost his breath. The final tear drained from his eye and clarity returned. A chill shot through his whole body and he felt the adrenaline explode in his core.

"REAPER!!! Kill the eng-" but Jeff didn't finish. Suddenly the entire sub heaved upwards with a deafening reverberation that shook the entire ship. Instantly red emergency lights painted the entire room in a dance party of danger as Sally and the following siren informed them of a creature attack. Jeff lost his footing and fell backwards narrowly missing hitting his head against the side rail of the ladder next to him. Palmer also lost his footing but he gripped tightly to the yoke as the rest of his body came down to the left. In so doing, the yoke turned to the left and pushed down. The whole ship echoed with the creaking of metal as it was violently brought in the new direction. Jeff could feel gravity begin pulling him down toward the bridge bubble where Palmer was and he could see that the ship was starting a nose dive. He began to slide down toward him and he slammed his shoulder hard against the glass. The reaper was just outside causing Jeff to scramble back wards up against the floor of the ship that was now almost vertical. Palmer lifted himself up by the yoke and stood on its base as he pulled the yoke back trying to right the ship.

As Palmer continued pulling up on the yoke, Jeff reached up and grabbed a slit in the floor plating that was designed specifically for vertical instances such as this and he began climbing his way up back to the computer terminal. He reached up and turned the outer floodlights off as well as the internal lighting. Then he hoisted himself up on the side of the terminal and began interfacing with the terminal from the side. He brought up the schematic of the ship and selected the stabilizers and rebooted their systems.

Jeff looked back at the pilots bubble to see them still careening toward the seafloor at an alarming speed. When he looked back at the terminal, the reboot had concluded and one of the stabilizers on their right side remained red but the left one had come back online.

"YOU'VE GOT A STABILIZER! PULL UP!"

The view through the glass started to shift as the ship began to right itself horizontally and their speed began to subside.

"KILL THE ENGINE!"

"Engine powering down," Sally said as they began slowing to a stop.

Then Jeff rerouted all battery power to the under-shield that and gone down at the first impact. Jeff saw on the terminal that with the new burst of power, the small blue bar on the ship's integrity meter shot up. Then Jeff canceled the alarm system sending them into pure darkness save for the faint glow of the terminals and tiny orientation lights near the floor.

"Palmer, get on the floor and hold on to something!"

Jeff leaned up against the wall and gripped the side-rail of the ladder next to him with all his might and waited.

Sure enough, as expected, the ship was shaken by another deafening impact by the Reaper who had followed them down. The scraping of metal and its whining in defiance to such force echoed through the hull.

In a very faint voice, fore Jeff had lowered the volume of Sally's voice system, she said, "Minor tail damage."

Through the glass Jeff caught a glimpse of the reaper as it circled around Determination. After another long few moments of pounding hearts, the reaper knocked the cyclops again, this time with less gusto then before. Then they waited for the fourth hit. And they waited. But it never came. They both stared out the window for what seemed like hours just waiting to see that the reaper was still inspecting them. After about fifteen minutes of pure silence, Palmer crept away from his spot and came up to the yoke. He cautiously glared around the glass looking for any sign of the reaper. Though the radar didn't have a very wide radius, there were no blips. Jeff stood up from his spot as Palmer took the yoke. Jeff walked around the side of the terminal and brought up the camera feeds. The ventral feed was completely gone as was the tail cam both of which were indicated to be ripped clean off by the schematic on the screen. The dorsal cam, however, was still online and though occasionally interrupted by digital static, still functioned. He panned it around looking for any sign of the reaper. He didn't have a very good perspective, but all things considered, it seemed the reaper had lost interest and may have even left the vicinity all together. Jeff then started looking at what parts of the hull were visible from this point of view. The reaper had been completely unhindered by the under-shield and had ripped into the hull plating of the tail. Wires and bent metal protruded out but nothing too horrible. Jeff was most worried about the ventral damage which they wouldn't be able to check until they were in safer waters. He could rest assured that at least the hull hadn't breached. He let out a long, painful, and deep sigh.

"I think it's gone..." He said in a low voice.

"Are you sure?" Palmer responded with a look of pure fear in his wide eyes.

"The radar is clear and I don't have a visual."

"Can we risk starting the engine? Do you know how much noise that will make?"

"Well we can't just sit here can we? Start us in silent running. It'll at least stifle the startup noise."

Palmer turned around and reached for the engine icon on the glass. He held his hand in midair for a moment, let out a breath, and then pressed the icon.

"Engine powering up," Sally said faintly.

In the pure silence, the engine made a noise that sounded so loud it was as if some one had taken a dubstep boombox into a quiet room in a library and let it rip; going from pin-drop silence to base-drop earcancer. They could have been sure the reaper would have heard it for miles, but in reality the noise was more quiet than it appeared. As the engine slowed to a silent running hum, each of them swallowed hard as they waited; watching the radar, the cam, and the glass for any sign of a returning reaper. The lights came on in a constant emergency red and as time passed, their spirits lifted as the reaper never returned.

"That... was horrifying," Palmer sighed as he put a hand to his face.

Jeff finally started feeling his muscles ache and the weakness in his legs.

He leaned against the computer terminal, "Try that in a seamoth face to face with the thing..."

"I'd rather not..."

With another sigh from both of them, they got back to business.

"Bring us back to the surface and angle us for an approach into the frame of the nose of the Aurora. We still have a job to do. I'm going down to see if there's any visible damage inside and make sure our cargo is secure."

As the Determination slowly ascended to the surface and turned back toward the Aurora, Palmer convinced himself he would never come back toward the vicinity of the Aurora again. Enough souls died here already.

Thanks for another great one! though seriously, Why wasn't palmer watching the radar. Maybe I'm just paranoid, but I want a second screen showing the radar, and I'm just play the game.

The radar has a very limited range. The reaper saw them before it was in range and by the time it had shown up on the radar, the reaper had already built up tremendous speed. That's why Jeff's job was so important. The cams gave him a much greater range than the radar. Remember, this is a Stock cyclops. To fix issues like this will require further upgrades.

Thanks for another great one! though seriously, Why wasn't palmer watching the radar. Maybe I'm just paranoid, but I want a second screen showing the radar, and I'm just play the game.

The radar has a very limited range. The reaper saw them before it was in range and by the time it had shown up on the radar, the reaper had already built up tremendous speed. That's why Jeff's job was so important. The cams gave him a much greater range than the radar. Remember, this is a Stock cyclops. To fix issues like this will require further upgrades.

Ah. Don't forget, the cyclops is getting 2 extra upgrade slots. Or the devs are making us long for them by putting in a 6 slot console with only 4 slots.

I'm a stupid person who makes stupid games and constantly self-deprecates his stupid life because he's a stupid idiot.

Bit of a lore error in chapter 33. You claimed the Aurora had 7,000 people aboard... and that's nowhere near close - there weren't even half that many people aboard. The in-game data-bank entry lists the Aurora's crew count as the following:

So: 23 + 85 + 40 + 9 = 157. That's how many people were on the Aurora, including the player-character - most of the ship's size was because it was carrying equipment to build a Phasegate (huge gateway for ships to travel through like a teleport arch) and because they had exploratory gear to try and find the Degasi with.

Not trying to discourage you - I like the story a lot - but this is a pretty big hiccup in the lore accuracy part of things!

Bit of a lore error in chapter 33. You claimed the Aurora had 7,000 people aboard... and that's nowhere near close - there weren't even half that many people aboard. The in-game data-bank entry lists the Aurora's crew count as the following:

So: 23 + 85 + 40 + 9 = 157. That's how many people were on the Aurora, including the player-character - most of the ship's size was because it was carrying equipment to build a Phasegate (huge gateway for ships to travel through like a teleport arch) and because they had exploratory gear to try and find the Degasi with.

Not trying to discourage you - I like the story a lot - but this is a pretty big hiccup in the lore accuracy part of things!

This is also in a universe where there are two survivors from the Aurora. This would seem to me to be an even bigger mistake, but it works tremendously.

In this universe, the Aurora could very likely have had 7000 people aboard.

And besides, a fan story doesn't necessarily have to follow rigidly with the lore. Creativity is definitely more important in this case.

This is also in a universe where there are two survivors from the Aurora. This would seem to me to be an even bigger mistake, but it works tremendously.

In this universe, the Aurora could very likely have had 7000 people aboard.

And besides, a fan story doesn't necessarily have to follow rigidly with the lore. Creativity is definitely more important in this case.

Not true; there were other survivors from the Aurora that were around for the first few days - at least eight others, if the Warper's comments about "Nine new biological subjects detected" are any indication. In that, a second survivor isn't all that unlikely.

Also, the author has repeatedly stated that they're trying to stick as close to the canon as possible unless the changes made are to make the story flow better, and has even made edits to reflect such. If not for that, I'd have agreed with you... but by all indication, this isn't meant to be a different universe. So the Aurora wouldn't have had 7,000 people - it'd have had 157, Jeff and Palmer included.

There's gotta be a balance point between creativity and lore, though - otherwise, why even bother making it stick so close to the story everywhere else and just make it a complete AU? Especially if it's for a spicific fanbase (people who know and play the game, that is).